The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Screwdriving operations in a production manufacturing environment may cause rubbish to be generated. The rubbish may be created when the tip of a screwdriver is inserted into and/or removed from the head of a screw. The rubbish may also be created when the tip of the screwdriver slips against the head of the screw.
Typically, the rubbish generated during screwdriving operations may include dust, flakes, shards and/or slivers. Although the individual rubbish particles may be small in size, accumulations of rubbish may quickly collect on production tools causing the production environment to be dirtied and/or contaminated. Further, rubbish generation and accumulation may provide opportunities for the rubbish to freely deposit onto the finished assembled product. Rubbish deposited onto finished assembled products such as a printed circuit board (“PCB”) may cause short circuiting and/or component failure.
Vacuum systems for production manufacturing equipment are widely known in the art. However, such vacuum systems are often integrated into automated manufacturing systems that employ a Programmable Logic Controller (“PLC”) to coordinate the manufacturing and the vacuuming processes. Utilizing such systems may be complex and cost prohibitive. Further, such systems may not be retrofitted to existing production equipment.
A need, therefore, exists for a vacuum system in which the vacuum system removes rubbish created during screwdriving operations. More specifically, a need exists for a vacuum system in which the vacuum system removes rubbish during screwdriving operations at the point of generation. Further, a need exists for a simple and low-cost vacuum system in which the vacuum system may be fitted to existing production manufacturing equipment and may utilize existing resources available within a production manufacturing environment.